La Petit Cuisine along Upper Thomson Road- French cuisine made affordable

   for starters. heated dinner rolls with plain butter. no ipad included.

 L'Entrée (Appetizer) Escargots with a flaky buttery crossiant drenched with savoury brown sauce.

Le Plat Principal (Main course) My order of a duck confit. Skin on, fried to a crisp with tender meat shielded from the frying. Now, the sauce however, wasn't too complimentary to the confit.

 

So I asked for some mustard and I was given a choice of three, in a quaint biscuit tin. I liked the tomato mustard the most. There was dijon which was too strong and another that was too sour. Of which, I promptly dismissed the name of. And what a pleasant surprise it was that the chef herself should appear at our table to enquire about the meal. It's these personal touches that make a world of difference in the service line and dining climate. And on that note, the number of tables probably count for ten, or a maximum of 15 at best hence the capacity for personal enquiries from the kitchen. But points for effort!



The other Le Plat Principal (Main course) was my friend's choice of steak and frites. Hmm. For its price, it was justified. But for its quality, let's just say there wouldn't be a repeat order of this.

And a random fact that might be useful if ever the day comes to dine in France,

A French dinner table will always have bread on it. It is however, considered bad etiquette to butter your bread at a meal in France. Instead, people in France use the bread to wipe up the juices left behind at the end of each course. This is because the different courses of a French meal are all served on the same plate.

Bon appétit!

guess where?

                                       wasn't that hard to follow the trail scent of coffee to a
                                       nondescript area for some awesome latte. not so awesome
                                       latte art but i'll let that slip :)
                                                              

                                             who needs a champ? all hail the king!                                         

                                         with sesame, spicy beansprouts and low cholestrol white
                                         eggs and normal brown eggs. :) self service.

                                         a choice of light/normal/ strong broth, amount of chicken
                                         oil (minimally less. not none :p), doneness of noodles.
                                         a very personal touch. :)

                                         sticky date and butterscotch ice cream? forgettable ice
                                         cream. moist sticky date pudding saved the day.

random vanilla ice cream. and not so molten lava. but

chocolate saved us all. :)

and a vanilla dirt pot! a pleasant sight but an awfully

refrozen excuse of a dessert :(

how was your saturday? :)

what was i thinking?

A blogging trip to Langkawi. Rrrright... So I've been wondering why I made the decision to take part and go about asking for daily votes. Instead of feeling like a charity case though, I've had an epiphany. Or epiphanies rather. They come in the form of encouragements blasting through the straitlaced collar I've been imaginarily holding around my neck like a brilliant breath of fresh air.

It's brilliant. The way I seem to have thrown off all inhibitions to chase my some sort of a dream. Just as my brother has put in time and effort into his food blog which I have failed in my own attempts, I think I could do this travel blogging thing. Why not? Maybe because I never document much of the trips we've taken till date. I could write a Bangkok and Beyond guidebook but no, I haven't done anything to contribute towards it.

Taking stock of my life has been on the backburner for the longest time now. Almost reaching the 3rd decade of life, what have I got to show for it. A less than stellar academic record. A random degree of involvement in the community. Bringing in and folding the laundry as my contribution to the household chores. Oh and could I forget, a whole month home nursing a fractured jaw. No, we should not go back there at all.

There's got to be more to life than all that.

And that's what I'm working towards right now. So from deep down in my heart, thank you. Each and every single one of you. For all the support. :)

i can't eat but i damn well can bake! :)

So today I decided that I should bake.

Every Tuesday is a potential bake/cook day because my awesome aunt is home to mess about with me :)

Part of the reason would be owing to the suicide attempt of my bunch of overripe bananas. I decided to honour them by baking them into some banana walnut muffins :)

So i peeled them and mashed them up with a fork.

Mixed it up with some eggs, plain flour, baking soda prune lowfat yoghurt, sugar and that's the batter you get for 12 good sized muffins. :) And walnuts. Not forgetting walnuts. I bought some and wondered if they had to be toasted. They definitely have to be toasted. Maybe even with some honey next time :) And voila!

And that's not the end of the mayhem. I'm getting loads of help at work with my kids while I'm home nursing my fractured jaw and very very sore teeth. :( And that takes up loads of energy so a carrot cake it is! And one that CHOCK full of ingredients :)

Awesomely important star ingredient: Carrots, grated.

More ingredients! Diced pineapples, soaked raisins (in some fruit syrup) and coarsely chopped, TOASTED walnuts :)

Mix it all up with some eggs, flour and canola oil. No butter.

Moist and chock full of ingredients. Who needs frosting with this? Hmm... well, a lil cream cheese wouldn't hurt. Maybe next time! :)

langkawi

I just had the most horrific time of my life at the hospital two Sundays ago what with a fractured jaw that has left my jaws immobilized for 6 weeks for a close reduction healing. It's been a fluids only diet and I'm just about up to here with strawberry and vanilla flavoured Ensure milk. I have been sitting home wondering where I could possibly go to leave all these bad memories behind. I've been travelling close to home these past couple of years but after the mailer from in2it.sg, I realised that I have yet to make it to Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah.

I did some reading up and look what I've found...

On June 1, 2007, Langkawi Island has been given a World Geopark status by UNESCO. And one of its main conservation areas, the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park (The Kilim River) is home to a Pirate Lagoon just outside the river. In actual form, it is a collapsed cave (hong) consisting of a cave entrance from the sea emerging into a hidden lagoon with towering, limestone escarpments and smaller caves. In the days when Kedah formed the gateway into China en route to the Silk Road, pirates on Langkawi used these caves to secure their profits. And what better way to explore these caves but on a kayak. Definitely my choice of transport. :) But they also have yatches that one could charter for the adventure tour. 

I'm definitely heading for the beaches on such a beautiful conglomerate of islands and honestly, it seems I'd be spoilt for choice. Apparently, Pantai Cenang is the most popular spot for tourists, what with its picturesque location with seemingly unending stretches of fine white sand. Not forgetting the extensive menus at its numerous restaurants and bars for evening entertainment, several hosting live music and for watching the sun set. Nothing like a beautiful sunset to remind me that life's got a lot more for me to look forward to :) I'm definitely going to be raving hungry for some mouth watering food and I've heard that the Tomato Nasi Kandar is a budget friendly yet absolutely flarvoursome food. I'll give you the full report when I've tried it...

I'm also looking forward to checking out Pantai Kok, a quieter and more secluded beach perfect for soul searching questions and a time away from everything that's about a mad city rush. It's also near to the beautiful Telagah Tujuh waterfalls and the Oriental Village-a charming pseudo French and old Chinese town.

Why visit the Oriental Village? That's where Gunung Machincang, Langkawi’s Cable Car affords some of the best views of the island’s mountainside greenery. I'm definitely taking the ride to get to the top of the mountain where I'll find the Skybridge – a curved suspension bridge listed as one of the world's ten most amazing bridges by Travel + Leisure and one of the world’s highest singlesupport

bridges. Awesome engineering at work wouldn't you agree?

Mmm. My ideal getaway from it all. The accident, the panic, the worries, the pain. My entry is a bit late in coming but if you think I deserve to take a break to refresh and renew my mind, then please, vote away! :) http://www.in2it.sg/InterestGroup/in2it_cms/index.php/lgk/picture/langkawi/79-ineedabreak

 

 

Leftovers

I know what you're thinking. What is this madness? If it's food then well, it's hardly appetizing? Hazarding some guesses? It's the leftovers from a BBQ with my girl friends. vietnamese purple sweet potatoes and regular russet gold potatoes. Instead of dumping it, which would be a big waste, I decided to peel them up and make a potato salad out of them! And this was what i got!

Baby food? Well, maybe. But it tastes absolutely divine. Just a dash of black pepper, a pinch of salt and just 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise to a mix of 8 small purple and regular potatoes. A nice summer salad it makes! :) Try it yourself.

girlfriends

chocolate ice cream with banana fritter (original)

they have an option for it to be served original or breaded. and it costs $7.50 bef tax and between 3-6pm, they have this on offer with their signature mint ice tea for $6++. it was GOOD! :)

signature mint ice tea

I don't think it was expensive if you made an order for a dessert as the one above but. we ordered another one which was ice cream with strawberry ice-cream and that. was a waste of stomach space and money. they were frozen pancakes and it was topped with one strawberry or maybe two at most, sliced into miserable pieces, served with random strawberry ice cream. the lousy tasting kind of course.

Then, there was a one for one offer on the pizza that they refused to accord to us because it was 5.55pm and you need time to make the pizza and it would've exceeded 6pm by the time it arrives so i'm sorry you cannot enjoy the offer. How does that reasoning make sense? It states 3-6pm and does not state a last order timing. And while I was pondering on the feasibility of their excuse, there they were stuffing their faces with another customer's wrong order of a pizza in plain sight. Well done LENAS. Very lousy customer service.

So we headed elsewhere for dinner. We took a stroll to raffles city and ended up at the newly renovated basement and had a nice comforting bowl of Clam Chowder! :) at The Soup Spoon. *yum

regular clam chowder. *ahhh. :)

rainy days

none of my adventures are coming to pass. rain's ruined yet another day of plans to cycle. c'est impossible. so off we went to swensens at marina square. and if you thought that brought a lil sunshine to my life... you're horribly wrong. :(

bbq chicken

5 cubes of potato, 3 peas, some random carrots, half a tough old bird

and if you thought i could share my companion's lunch? well, she did no better with fried fish with apricot mayo. a bizzare sauce. sigh. dinner at zhou's was better. hing hwa lor mee. comfort food. <3 and dessert of course!

nooooo i can't! and i betcha you can't either :)

scented candles

ikea last night. i thought i'd blog about it. without photos. since everyone's got a try of their meatballs. (i hope you have?) it's not fantastic but the deal on Tuesdays makes it, well, instinctive. $4 for 10 meatballs. :) all the way till July 2010! and i got my lovely berry scented Tindra Mys candles!

off for another food escapade now. i'm thinking dim sum. dian dao wo kai xin! i wonder if my food companion's receiving my telepathic food signals...

just because i'm trawling my photo files.

bintan getaway

back from a long hiatus. photos can do the talking.
lunch at bintan idol

you'll never guess. this was mee goreng.

eating local. tahu goreng.

kung po chicken.

sour. can't decide if mee goreng or this was of a stranger taste.

dinner at 3DSR- which DSR was supposed to be the acronym for degrees. hmm.

appetizers. caramelized onion and sweet buns.

cream of capsicum. pretty sure it was pumpkin :)

spring chicken with fries

salmon with garlic fried rice

seafood temptation

mixed grill. lamb/sirloinsteak/fish/baked potato

everything was sorely overpriced and well, sore. just eating to fill them hungry tummies. but my girls made it all good. loving the weekend away. :)

simple bliss

just for YOUR birthday. not even wild elephants could've dragged me out from school after a supplementary class/ lvl meeting day for dinner. :)

TCC at Velocity

shrooms bite

while the ragout was definitely out of bounds in a low sodium diet, it did well to whet our appetites. :)

halibut pasta

HAppily without any BUTS

there was a generous smattering of onions and garlic but strangely, that was buried in the pasta and did nothing to overcome the fishy taste of the halibut-which was tender to the bite and could've been more appetizing had its fishy taste been done away with. the sauce was rich. and the parmesan shavings did well to impart some saltiness to it. made me a happy girl indeed.

bulgogi beef and mushroom

 

tender slices of beef with a version of bulgogi seasoning that was unfamiliar to my taste buds but nonetheless lip-smackingly tasty. :) '...for muscle building...' the description read. i'd gladly build muscles with these kinds of proteins/carbs :)

 

 

toofie and peppermint tea

 

no better way to ease the richness of the cream pasta and to watch the world go by on a lazy evening than with a serving of peppermint tea.

 

It was simple bliss indeed. 

 

 

don't you have friends who exasperate you to no end? :)

and at the end of the day, these are still the girls that i love the most. :) monday nights out at the cbd area. yawning and with cramps, i wondered why i was on the bus for 1 hour plus just to rush for dinner. and when i got there? i wondered no more. seeing tan, pri, goli and cassie boo. and then being surprised by zek and boh finding her way to the restaurant, i had the loveliest time ever. bye bye sakae and hello sushi tei, suki, ichiban. we had plans and it was to be in december. but december no more! we'll see what we can do in three weeks. cassie says. i'm so glad exco is back in full force. and you know what? i totally agree. :) i'm a happy girl. are you? :)))) who cares if i have double chin triple chin whatever.